Alumni

Zero-Sum Game: The Rise of the World's Largest Derivatives Exchange

Finance Roundtable

November 11, 2010: 6:00 PM - 9:00 PM

How did Chicago come to be the risk management capital of the world? Why is the U.S. government looking to the executives of Chicago-based CME Group - the exchange formed by the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT), the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME), and the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX)—to help prevent another financial crisis? How did CME Group come to control 98% of the country’s regulated futures market?

Where

Event Details

Former CBOT managing director and author of Zero-Sum Game, Erika S. Olson, will cover these questions and more as she provides a behind-the-scenes look at the stranger-than-fiction (and often hilarious) multibillion-dollar bidding war that erupted between CME and Atlanta’s IntercontinentalExchange (ICE) for CBOT in 2007. Considering the implications of the Dodd-Frank financial reform legislation, which will move “over-the-counter” derivatives onto exchanges like CME Group and ICE, this discussion could not be timelier.
Please join us for what promises to be a very important evening of education, inspiration and participation.

Program

Speaker Profiles

Erika S. Olson (Speaker)Financial Writer and Business Consultant

Erika S. Olson is a financial writer and business consultant. Before embarking on a freelance career at the close of the CME/CBOT merger in the summer of 2007, she worked in and consulted to the financial services industry for over ten years. Olson held management positions at the Chicago Board of Trade and JPMorgan Chase, interned at Fidelity Investments during graduate school, and developed Internet strategies in the late 1990s for clients such as KeyBank and Bank One. She considers herself somewhat of an expert on mergers, as she has suffered through five of them.
Olson earned her BBA from the University of Michigan Ross School of Business and her MBA from Harvard Business School.

As CEO of the Chicago Board of Trade, Bernie led CBOT’s demutualization and IPO in 2005, and steered the company through its unanticipated $13B merger with Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) in 2007. Under Bernie’s management, CBOT broke revenue and volume records for six consecutive years, and his progressive approach also resulted in the implementation of electronic trading—despite significant member resistance. After the CME/CBOT merger was finalized, Bernie joined MF Global in 2008 as North American COO, but quickly earned the role of CEO, charged with repositioning the brokerage as a global market leader after an isolated trading event drastically reduced its market capitalization. In a challenging economy, Bernie improved stock prices from $2.00 to $7.33 per share, and restored the firm’s reputation and overall credibility in under two years.
Bernie will join Erika for the Q&A session after her prepared presentation.